ADVOCACY

Food Security and Nutritional Surveillance Project (FSNSP)

OverviewThe national Food Security and Nutritional Surveillance Project (FSNSP) was a project conducted from July 2008 - June 2015, the aim of which was to track nationally representative estimates for food security and nutrition in Bangladesh. FSNSP was the only nutritional surveillance system solely devoted to tracking the food security and nutritional status of households across different divisions and surveillance zones in Bangladesh, with a strong emphasis on formulating policy, planning and action.

The project provided up-to-date, seasonal information from 2010 - 2014 on the situation of food and nutrition security in Bangladesh for six agro-ecological zones as well as the nation as a whole. The main target group of the surveillance were women and under-five children.

ProjectsFSNSP was a five year project funded by the European Union. The surveillance was conducted by the James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University (JPGSPH) in partnership with Helen Keller International (HKI) and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Until 2012, it was housed in HKI, after which it was shifted to JPGSPH. Aside from the technical objectives, the overall objective of the project was to institutionalise the nutritional surveillance into a national framework under the aegis of the government of Bangladesh. FSNSP has implemented a nationally representative surveillance system that tracks variation in indicators of food security and nutrition over three seasons in Bangladesh: the post-aman harvest period (January-April); the monsoon season (May-August); and the post-aus harvest season (September-December). Donor:• European Union • BRAC

Highlights• A special study “Primary School Feeding Programme” was conducted under this project. • Four annual reports ‘State of Food Security & Nutrition in Bangladesh’ have been published from this project from 2010 to 2013. The last annual report of 2014 has been finalized and about to publish.• Total 13 bulletins and a policy brief have been published and disseminated among the stakeholders. Three more bulletins and three more policy briefs will be published soon.• FSNSP partners started collaboration with National Nutrition Services (NNS) to address the issue of its involvement in food security nutritional surveillance and thus institutionalization.• FSNSP used to share data in ministries and nutrition community for policy implication and programme planning.• FSNSP has a website through which FSNSP related information can be collected.